Britten's new work for the English Opera Group in 1948 was his reworking of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. The only role on offer to Lesley Duff was in the ensemble, where she also had one solo line as Mrs Vixen. Whatever qualms she must have had about this step down from being a main cast member she kept to herself. Clearly she was willing to overcome them in order to stay in Britten's orbit. Besides, she could now work for him and be relieved of the self-destructive angst that she was consistently failing to meet his standards – and hers, for that matter. Putting on The Beggar's Opera was a more relaxed experience for Britten too – initially at least – because his stake in it was also less.

One day Ben rang up. ‘Can your boys give me some cricket tomorrow?’ he said. ‘I’ve got my only free afternoon in six months.’

So I fetched him and saw again the lovely relaxation of youth spring up in his face and the happy ease that is always his with children.

‘Come for a walk with us,’ he said, when every ball the house possessed had been batted into oblivion in the neighbouring gardens. We went across Hampstead Heath and over to Kenwood where the rhododendrons were just budding. We talked about the children. He felt that one should not be too violent in sharing our beliefs with our children, or in influencing them to share those beliefs. They must be part of their own world as they grow up and any obvious deviation from it was going to cause a great deal of suffering. Only can one be the things one believes, surround them with the almost unspoken atmosphere of those things and watch with patience how their spirits react to it or seek out their own way.

We passed through Kenwood, back onto the windy heath, and with deep love he spoke of Peter's work, his joy with the fact that he would come to Aldeburgh and have his own room there and be with him. ‘Nothing makes sense unless you are with the one you love.’

‘Ben,’ I said, ‘do you believe that if you want a perfection strongly enough and work hard enough, in the end and with infinite patience you will find it?’